


I Was Disappearing In Plain Sight

by wasp



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: F/F, Genderswap, Sixth Form!AU, always-a-girl!liam, always-a-girl!louis, mentions of past bullying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-15
Updated: 2012-11-15
Packaged: 2017-11-18 17:18:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/563507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wasp/pseuds/wasp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis thinks <i>bitch</i> and tries not to feel guilty because it’s like kicking a three-legged puppy. She has to maintain her righteous anger and all that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Was Disappearing In Plain Sight

**Author's Note:**

> My [1D!Genderswap](http://apayneinthearse.tumblr.com/post/28818000196/1d-genderswap-ficathon-holly-earl-harry-juno) casting + extra [Liam/Louis](http://apayneinthearse.tumblr.com/post/27701317020/1d-genderswap-set-in-this-verse-liam-lily) \+ [fanmix](http://apayneinthearse.tumblr.com/post/24271944915/fanmix-to-go-with-this-you-always-make-me-smile)

“Who the fuck is Liam Payne?” Louis demands. She plops down onto the cafeteria seat, almost landing down on top of Harry in her righteous rage.

“Are you blind or something?” Niall asks through her mouthful of potatoes, flecks of it falling to the table. She sheepishly wipes at it with her sleeve and wrinkles her freckled nose. Louis can’t find it in herself to be disgusted.

Harry pats Louis on the head and says, “This isn’t really that big of a school, Lou, we’ve been going to school with her since Year 7.”

“Really? Are you sure she didn’t transfer from the fiery pits of hell or something?” Louis asks, eyebrows climbing into her hairline already.

With a groan, Louis pushed her face into the crook of her own arms, resting them on the table. She’s going to die, she’s going to disintegrate right onto the sticky floor and it’s all Harry’s fault.

A fresh bought of indignant rage rushed over her and Louis snaps her head up. “Why the fuck did you drop Biology for?” she asks because it’s almost always Harry’s fault that shit goes wrong in her life.

“Because I was failing? Not like I had a choice,” Harry says, her lower lip jutting out resembling something dangerously close to a pout.

Niall, because she’s the worst enabler in the world, mock-glares at Louis and takes time out from eating to get her arms around Harry. She rests her bulging cheeks on top of Harry’s head and pats the side of her face, spluttering out another, “S’all right, Haz, you did your best.”

“Oh fuck off, I know you’re trying to guilt me into buying you the candy bars the Christians are selling,” Louis says, rolling her eyes and trying to ignore the both of them. It’s hard when Harry’s milking up the attention like she always does, pushing her face into Niall’s hand like a puppy.

“What happened anyway?” Niall asks.

“The stupid _bitch_ did our assignment!” Louis exclaims, turning to face her friends with an indignant expression on her face. Louis sighs dramatically and blows the hair out of her face, waiting for her friends to erupt in moral support.

Harry and Niall look at her, identical blank faces etched onto their individual features. To be fair, Louis can kind of see where they’re coming from. It’s not like Louis’ the most academic student in their year, she’s pretty sure she’s slept through most of last year. Pretty much all her assignments are done four hours before they’re due, her body running solely on caffeine and increasingly hysterical texts to Harry.

“Isn’t that like … a good thing?” Harry asks, peeking at Louis from Niall’s collarbones.

“It’s not like I asked her to pair up with me, okay, I had no choice because some selfish tart – who shall remain unnamed – decided to drop this god forsaken subject,” Louis sucks in a huge breath and continues before they can interrupt her, “The pretentious cunt decided I was too _dumb_ to do my share of the work and then acted like she was doing me a fucking _favour.”_

"That doesn't sound like Liam," Niall says.

“How would you know?” Louis asks, shocked out of her rant.

“Oh, Tomlinson, just because you don’t notice anyone unless they blow up a toilet, doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t.” Niall says, giving her a shit-eating grin. She shrugs, jolting Harry and says, “And you don’t have to do your work, what are you complaining about?”

“It’s the _principle_ of the thing or some shit,” Louis replies, glaring at them both. She expected the both of them to come to her aid because that’s what friends do. Friends shit on people their friends hate.

“I hate you both,” Louis says, crossing her arms. Less than a second later, Harry flies at her, hitting her with a mass of curls and flailing limbs. Louis knew it was coming anyway and managed to time it so they both didn’t end up smacking into each other and passing out like that one time. Niall joins in, flattening Louis across her seat and jabbing her fingers between the threadbare shirt and into her ribs until she finally splutters, “Okay, I don’t hate you stupid cunts.”

When they’ve all calmed down enough to untangle themselves, Louis gets her revenge by licking the side of Niall’s face and sticking potatoes in Harry’s ear.

~

The next Biology lesson they have, Louis runs through the corridors so she can get there first instead of stumbling in five minutes after the bell like usual. She sits at the front of the room which she usually avoids like Mr Belfast has the plague, and rests her feet on the table, legs crossed at the ankles. She’s sitting in Liam’s usual seat, hissing occasionally when someone tries to sit next to her.

Louis is proud to say she’s calmed down since last week, or stopped complaining about Liam because Harry threatened to get her brothers to put hair removal cream in her shampoo (again). She just doesn’t appreciate some stranger judging her from the first moment they’d met. Again, it’s the principle of the thing.

When Liam does walk into the room, both hands tucked into the arm straps of her backpack, Louis gives her a huge shit-eating grin and waves. Liam’s eyes widen ever so slightly and she looks like a deer caught in the fucking headlights. Louis thinks _bitch_ and tries not to feel guilty because it’s like kicking a three-legged puppy. She has to maintain her righteous anger and all that.

It’s not like Liam makes it harder after that as she pointedly looks around the room for another seat. With a defeated sigh, she finally slides in the only available seat next to her.

“Liam,” Mr Belfast says walking over to their table, “Louis came up to me and explained you guys wanted to edit your work again and since you handed it in early I don’t see why not,” he handed the report back with a smile and walked away.

When Mr Belfast is out of earshot, Louis leans across the desk and raises her eyebrows at Liam.

“This time, how about you don’t take a huge steaming shit on my intelligence and we do this together,” Louis says, crossing her arms and glares at her over the report.

Liam gapes at her for a moment, her mouth opening and closing uselessly. Louis tries to maintain her glare but she finds it faltering way too fast for her liking. Hanging out with Niall had obviously rubbed off on Louis until she was shitting angel dust and healing cancer-riddled kittens subconsciously.

“What? I wasn’t – okay, maybe – but, I just didn’t think you’d want to do it,” Liam finally splutters out, a flush starting to rise in her cheeks.

Louis doesn’t respond.

“Look, I know you’ve got like, parties and,” Liam pauses for a second; scrunching up her nose, “stuff to do with your friends? I really needed an A and I just thought-.”

“Well you thought wrong,” Louis says because she’s actually five years old and she’s going to act like a goddamn child if she wants to.

Louis’ not going to sit back and let Liam think she’s so much better than her because she gets straight A’s. She doesn’t know why it’s so important for Liam to know she’s not completely useless. It’s probably a pride thing.

“Are you free this Saturday?” Louis asks, still refusing to make eye-contact but staring stoically past her shoulder. It’s taking a lot of her mental power and Louis’ vision slides to Liam constantly when she thinks she isn’t looking.

Liam looks taken back, the blush still not fully receding. Louis can’t help but think she looks so fucking proper and put together, yellow cardigan, floral skirt, flats, short curls – it makes Louis want to mess her up.

“Um, yeah, usually,” Liam says, shrugging just the tiniest bit, looking extremely unsure. She bites down on her bottom lip and nervously scratches at the desk with a ragged nail.

Something about the crooked edges of her nail makes Louis pause, so out of place with Liam’s whole preppy look. “We should do it this Saturday. I’ll text you the directions to my house,” Louis says, fishing her phone, complete with the cracked screen and stickers of Harry flashing her tits, and handing it to Liam.

Liam doesn’t even raise an eyebrow at the state of her phone and presses her digits in. She hands it back to Louis and their fingers brush against each other for barely a second. Her hands are extremely warm.

The rest of the period rushes past with Mr Belfast rambling on about DNA or whatever the fuck they’re supposed to be studying – Louis’ not too sure. Of course, Liam’s scribbling down notes and diagrams on her notebook.

The bell finally signals the end of the period and during the loud scraping of chairs and chattering that generally erupts, Louis sends Liam a text.

_Turn around bright eyes._

Liam turns around, eyebrows raised and Louis calls out over the small crowd between them, “Save my number, dummy!”

~

Trying to navigate the navigation system on her phone and ride a bicycle one-handed wasn’t as easy as Liam thought it’d be. Liam screams once again as her bike jerks before she gains control of it again – she should’ve worn shorts or something, she’s pretty sure she’s flashed like five people ever since she got on the stupid thing. Every second that passes is only reaffirming the fact that this is a _terrible idea_.

Liam has never hated a teacher more than she hates Mr Belfast for pairing her up with _Louis fucking Tomlinson._ Of course Louis had asked her if she was _new_ like they hadn’t been going to the same school for about four years now and then proceeded to ask her if she’d been sick or something because she’d never seen her around. Then Louis had tried to introduce herself like everybody in the school didn’t already know her as the girl who once peed behind the woods but still managed to have everyone like her.

Not to mention the sheer fact that she was _intimidating_. Liam was awkward and shy, she was blindingly aware of this fact; this seemed to multiply by the thousands when she was around Louis. She was aware of every intimate detail of her body and it felt like everybody else was too. For fuck’s sakes, Louis didn’t even know her _name_.

Liam was pulled out of her thoughts when her phone started beeping wildly and she braked too hard, almost falling off her bike in the process. Shakily getting off her bike, Liam tried to reason with herself. She was just going to finish the bleedin’ assignment with Louis then get the fuck out of there before she could embarrass herself or _bore_ Louis to death.

Liam wheeled her bicycle through the front yard littered with toys and hesitated for a moment before finally ringing the bell.

The neighbourhood is eerily quiet for a moment or two before the door swings open and a rush of sound comes bursting out. Liam blinks in surprise and it finally registers in her head that Louis is standing in nothing but a ragged shirt and her underwear, a lingering smile on her face from whoever she was talking to. It kind of fades when she sees Liam and Liam tries not to let it affect her too much.

“Hi,” Liam says lamely. Before she can stop herself, her mouth starts running, “Are you busy because, y’know, we could just do this another time or whatever. Oh, hey, why don’t we just hand in the one I’ve already one and I can go home -.”

Louis waves a hand, making a face. She steps out of and wheel’s Liam’s bike for her into the garage. She takes a moment to wave at her neighbour who’s tending to his rosebushes. Louis stops for a second to enjoy the horrified look on his face before returning to Liam’s side.

Liam’s just been standing on the doorstep. She wonders how she can be the awkward one when Louis is clambering around in her underwear as if she was fully clothed and perfectly comfortable.

“What are you still standing here for, c’mon,” Louis says and grabs her arm, pulling her inside her house. Liam topples into Louis when a little boy goes rushing out of the open door, making airplane noises.

“Oh for shit’s sakes, Fizz, keep off the fucking roads!” Louis calls out after him.

Liam’s still overwhelmed, thinking of their quiet little house tucked into the corner of the street, just Liam and her mum. Liam suddenly feels air against the back of her thighs and whips around, pulling her skirt down to find another boy, a cheeky smile on his face.

“DAAAAAAAAAD, GEORGIE’S BEING A PERVE AGAIN,” Louis shouts at the top of her lungs, lunging at her brother and grabbing him by the ears.

“Owf, get off Lou! Haz never complains,” Georgie says, trying to squirm out of her death grip.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” Louis says to Liam, twisting his ear causing him to howl.

Liam nods quickly, trying to reassure everyone that everything was perfect and there was no reason for any of them to go into a mild panic attack, and says, “No, no, it’s nothing, I-.”

“Sorry about that my dear, boys will be boys, aye? Do you have any brothers, Liam?” Louis’ dad asks, popping out of the kitchen with mittens on, a plate of cookies in his hands.

“Okay, yeah, we need to do our assignment – or do you want me to fail again?” Louis snaps at her dad, linking her arm through Liam’s.

“Oh, c’mon, Lou, no need to be snappy,” Louis mum says, appearing at her dad’s elbow with two glasses of orange juice. She smiles brightly at Liam, just like Louis, and says, “There you go sweetheart, freshly squeezed.”

Liam lets go of the iron grip on her skirt to receive the orange juice, smiling back at her, blush still high on her cheeks. “Thank you so much for having me,” she says politely, “and no, I’m an only child.”

“For fuck’s sakes, you don’t need to indulge them,” Louis says, rolling her eyes. She grabs the plate of cookies off her dad and starts to drag Liam upstairs.

Liam follows, careful not to trip over the array of toys on the staircase and spill the orange juice. Louis kicks open her door with grandeur and says, “Ta-da!”

Liam walks in after her timidly, eyes wide and disbelieving. She still can’t believe she’s at Louis Tomlinson’s house, in her _room_. Also because her room is a fucking pigsty. Liam can’t actually see a surface to put the glasses down, the whole place looks like a grenade of clothes and food wrappers had exploded in here.

Louis’ already balanced the cookies precariously on top of a pile of books and reaches over to get the glasses off her. She finds them a spot on the floor near her bed and then jumps back into her bed, spreading her arms out.

Liam tries not to stare because that t-shirt’s not doing that great of a job of hiding the fact she’s not wearing a bra.

“Did you just wake up?” Liam asks, attempting to sound like a semi-sane person. It’s just, Louis’ hairs messy (as it always is, actually) and her bed’s not made.

“It _is_ a Saturday. Oh, let me guess, you woke up at 6, made your bed, went for a run, fed some orphans and saved a couple of kittens from their inevitable doomed fates?” Louis says, not unkindly, though there’s challenge written all over her tone.

“I had time to squeeze in some squats too,” Liam replies without thinking, pulling her backpack off her shoulders.

Liam freezes in surprise as Louis falls back against her pillows and realises she’s _laughing_. Liam slowly puts her bag down onto the ground next to the orange juice, pulling her notes out of her bag and trying not to move too fast. It feels like she’s in a cage with a lion and at any moment something _bad_ is going to happen.

Louis doesn’t do anything though, just throws her head back and laughs some more.

“Okay, you should sit down, it’s not like I’m going to bite – not unless you say please anyway,” Louis says and getting on all fours and crawling over so Liam could squeeze herself on the bed.

Liam ignores the ‘unwrap me’ written in bright green on back of her underwear and takes a seat, moving a t-shirt and a sweater to the side in the process.

“So, this is what I’ve done,” Louis says, reaching over Liam to grab her Macbook Pro. She settles back on her side, their knees suddenly touching and opens her mac.

Liam still feels weirdly flushed and hot so she takes her sweater off, wondering when her limbs became so lethargic and lazy and _unresponsive_. She struggles for a moment before she hears Louis snort muffled through the wool and she’s helping her get it off her head, her curls frizzing against the material. Liam resurfaces after a moment embarrassed and hot, palms clammy with sweat.

Louis shifts her laptop so it’s half on Liam’s lap, moves so their arms are pressed tight against each other in what is blatant unnecessary contact. Liam chokes on nothing, her throat incredibly dry and tries to concentrate on the pixels making up the screen. Her desktop background is a picture of Louis, Harry and Niall wearing fake moustaches flipping the camera off. Liam feels more out of place than ever.

“Can you pass me my glasses?” Louis asks, opening up the word document.

Liam spots it sitting on top of a rumpled pair of jeans and reaches over easily. She hands it back to Louis who puts it on straight away, eyebrows furrowed slightly as she tries to find the file.

Liam swallows. It’s going to be a long day.

~

Halfway through, the window of Lion King pops up from where Louis’ had been watching it last night and Liam lets it slip that she’s never watched it before.

“Oh my god,” Louis says turning to her with wide eyes, her open mouth revealing chewed up bits of cookie that should be totally disgusting.

Liam winces, prepares herself for it. She knew it was coming. Louis’ going to make fun of her sooner or later because of _course she is –_

“You uncultured _brute,_ we need to watch this RIGHT NOW!” Louis exclaims, making the window full-screen and clicking play. She grabs a box of tissues from her bedside table and settles back down.

Liam would’ve been more emotionally compromised (or less, actually) if Louis didn’t break down crying when the stupid lion dies. She doesn’t know what to do; her hands – why does she have hands – have never seemed so useless before. Liam bites down on her lip and hesitates for a moment before putting an arm around Louis’ skinny, shaking shoulders.

Louis leans against Liam, tucking her face against the side of her neck and so Liam soothes a hand down the length of her spine, reaches the warm skin peeking out from under her t-shirt before the band of her underwear.

Stupid fucking lions.

When the movie ends and Louis is only hiccupping slightly, still tucked comfortably into Liam’s side, Liam has a mini panic-attack. She has no idea what she’s supposed to do now.

“Are you okay?” Liam asks stupidly, looking down at Louis, concerned.

“Yeah,” she says and if Louis was capable of such feat, Liam would’ve thought she looked _embarrassed_. She pulls a puppy face, eyes still red and Liam’s heart actually squeezes. “Well, that was fucking embarrassing,” Louis finally says, laughing and pulling away from Liam.

Liam had cried too if she was being honest. It was kind of inevitable unless you were dead inside or something. Liam pointed this out to Louis and Louis gave her a grateful albeit watery smile.

~

Louis ends up driving Liam home in her shitty little car and Louis’ proud that they’ve only almost crashed twice. Liam’s still clutching at her seatbelt though, knuckles white, her knees drawn up, her sensible flats resting on the faded material of the seat. Louis can’t help the little twitch of a smile on her face. It’s kind of refreshing to see her being anything but straight-backed, taking meticulous notes with a look of concentration on her face.

Not that Louis has been looking or anything.

She still feels the need to mess Liam up, get her to react and _respond_ to Louis. Louis cuts that line short when she realises she’s basically like a puppy demanding attention. She is _not,_ she’s a dignified motherfucker and she’s going to act like one.

“Relax,” Louis says, reaching over to wrap her hand at the back of her neck, just under her brown curls. “ _To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die_ and all that shit,” Louis says and swerving accidentally. She quickly puts both hands on the steering wheel, mostly because Liam looks like she’s going to faint.

Louis can’t help feel her swerving car is somehow symbolically representing Louis’ self whenever Liam’s around. It’s weird, Liam makes her feel like her hands are too big and her voice is too loud, dumb and over the top. The only way Louis can compensate for that is to double her effort, acts even more outrageous. It’s fucking exhausting.

But Liam turns to her with an incredulous smile and her whole face changes when she laughs, her eyes almost disappearing. “You listen to the Smiths?” she asks, her hands loosening on the seatbelt.

“No but Harry does,” Louis says, can’t help but smile back at her when she looks like that, “turn left here?” she asks and when Liam nods, she takes care not to run over the curb like the last time.

“Here,” Liam says quietly when they reach the corner and Louis brakes as hard as she always does. Liam laughs (and chokes) this time and shakily undoes her seat belt.

“Who let you have a license,” Liam asks, reaching for her bag stashed under the seat amidst the take away food cartons.

“Oh, I don’t have one,” Louis says, managing to keep a straight face long enough for Liam to gape at her. “Don’t shit bricks, I’m fucking around,” Louis says, flicking Liam’s nose.

Liam wrinkles her nose at her and deadpans, “Ha. Ha. Ha.”

Louis laughs way harder than this situation calls for.

“So, this shit’s due by next Friday, yeah?” Louis asks her.

“Yep, second period,” Liam says and Louis can’t help snorting. Of course she’d fucking know.

“Want to come over on Tuesday after school to finish it?” Louis asks, gripping the steering wheel harder than necessary. She tells herself to relax and with some difficulty uncurls her hand, letting them rest in her lap. Louis doesn’t _do_ nervous.

“Sure,” Liam says and gives her a small smile, opening the door on her side.

“Oh, hey, I’ll help you with your bike - sorry about that, I’m sure Fizz didn’t mean to run over dog shit, he always has to share with Georgie and Lottie so he kind of went crazy on yours,” Louis says, pulling a face and climbing out after her.

“It’s fine,” Liam says, attempting to haul the bike sticking out of the trunk of Louis’ shitbox.

Louis walks over to her side, grabs hold of the handle bar and manages to pull it out.

“Oh shit, I forgot to thank your parents for having me,” Liam says, her face falling. Louis stops in her tracks at her – where did Liam even come from? Then Liam cracks a smile and Louis laughs in surprise.

“No, but seriously, can you thank them for having me,” Liam says after Louis calms down, still smiling all squinty-eyed.

“Oh my god,” Louis says, shaking her head.

“Well, goodnight,” Liam says, crooking two fingers at her in a wave.

“Night,” Louis says after her, watching her be swallowed up in the darkness.

Louis gets into her car and just sits there for a little while with her head against the steering wheel.

Fucking _shit_.

~

This isn’t stalking. It’s staring with intention and it’s not creepy or weird – fuck it, it’s probably stalking if you have to justify your actions. Louis wants to drop dead; right there on the pavement and watch in satisfaction as Harry shouts at the skies and pounds her fist against the ground in her grief. It’s what she gets for dropping Biology.

“Hey, what’s up,” Harry says, shaking their linked pinkies to get her attention.

Louis turns to her and says, “I’m going to die.”

“Did you forget your History homework?” Harry asks knowingly and without a pause. She bumps her hip against Louis’ in consolidation.

“No, Harry, do you think I’m a Neanderthal? I didn’t – oh fuck yeah, wait, I did – but that’s not what I’m talking about,” Louis says and rests her head against the taller girl’s shoulder, biting at the bone under her sweater just for the sake of it.

“What’s the matter boobear?” Harry says, swinging their hands together.

“I did warn you the next time you called me that in public I’m going to tell everyone about that time when you thought you were going to grow a penis,” Louis says, trying to step on her foot.

Harry easily evades her and pouts, “I was like ten.”

Louis coughs and simultaneously says, “Fifteen.”

Louis thinks it’s been long enough since she’d glanced down the street as they, no other reason than making sure they were going the right way of course, it wasn’t like the whole street was littered with walking school children heading in the same direction. Naturally if Louis’ eyes stray to Liam walking with the new girl – the new _hot_ girl with a fantastic set on her and amazing hair, it’s because she’s in her line of vision.

“Who’s that walking with Payne?” Louis asks as discreetly as possible.

“Zayn Malik - she’s in our rollcall, Lou,” Harry says rolling her eyes.

Louis shrugs. It’s not her fault she doesn’t really pay attention to anything that doesn’t directly involve her or fails to grab her attention. She has no idea how this girl passed through her radar though – Zayn literally looks like she just popped out of a movie.

“She’s like _nasty_ hot,” Louis says, raising her eyebrows at her. Harry nods in agreement and blatantly checks her out.

She can’t help wondering how Liam and Zayn got to talking anyway – they’re on the complete opposite of the spectrum. Not that Louis is saying that Liam isn’t _hot,_ she’s got that whole nerd-y chic thing going on with the high-waisted skirts and long legs and how she smiles with her whole face and _really_ soft skin -.

What Louis is _trying_ to say is – this is a high school, this isn’t how it usually works.

Louis’ about to point this out because she’s kind of an asshole when she wants to be when they’re interrupted by the sight of Niall running towards them, the complete opposite of the way to school, mass of blonde hair streaming behind her. Before Niall reaches them, they see her take in a huge gulp of breath and bellow across the street, “ZAYN MALIK? YOU _STUPID_ WANKER, GET OVER HERE!” and before they realise what’s happening, Niall’s flown at Zayn and they’re both sprawled on the ground.

Louis and Harry both rush over to where they’ve stopped, drawing a mini-crowd in a semi-circle around them. Louis’ known Niall for a while now and she’s never one to be violent or start fights. Unless food was involved and that was only if Niall was really hungry, like contemplate scraping gum off the underside of her desk hungry.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe it’s you. I haven’t seen you since we were like seven and you fucked off to god knows where!” Niall says in delight, grabbing Zayn’s face like they hadn’t only met after about a decade passed and pressing it against her boobs. But that’s just Niall.

Zayn’s laughing though, complaining about Niall taking off half her make-up with her man-handling and trying not to flash everyone in her short skirt. Niall lands a smacking kiss on top of Zayn’s head and let’s go of her only to roll over onto her belly on the street and push her chin into her hands, an eager expression on her face.

“Why’d you move? Are you back now? Do you go to our school? Are you friends with Liam? I love your hair – you smell nice, oh my god _Zayn_ ,” Niall says, totally comfortable lying on the dirty pavement as if they were in her bedroom. She’s talking to Zayn as if they’d known each other _forever_. But again, that’s just who Niall was. She could make friends with an angry bear and get it to give up its food for hibernation.

~

Louis doesn’t really pay attention to her surroundings, it’s not like she does it on purpose, she just has a short attention-span and unless it’s worthy of her attention, she’s not going to give a flying shit. So when she overhears girls in the bathroom talking about the new girl with one side of her head shaved and the cigarette pack dangling out of her packet, she pauses to listen, her hand on the lock of her cubicle.

What Louis gleans from their conversation is that Zayn is obviously a slut because _hello_ have you seen the length of her skirt, her winged eyeliner and how the boys fall over themselves to get near her. The fact she doesn’t take science or math, even though she excels in English, makes her stupid.

Louis walks out of her cubicle and walks up to Jamie or Jasmine or whatever the fuck her name is and says, “Are you wearing blush today? You look so totally cute,” Then proceeds to touch her face with her unwashed hands and smiles brightly at them all.

“Oh god, I shouldn’t have had that burrito for breakfast,” Louis says, grabbing at her stomach and disappearing back into a cubicle, “it’s coming out of me like lava!”

~

Niall, of course, never pays anyone’s opinions of her friends sway hers. Louis sees her in the hallway, arm thrown around Zayn’s shoulder, poking at her boobs because how do they stay up like that. Niall wears sweatpants to school every second day, Louis’ sure she doesn’t even own a proper bra, just the sports bra she has a habit of walking around in.

Louis sees a perfect chance to talk to Zayn when they line up behind each other for lunch. Louis’ late because she fell asleep in English and Harry thought it’d be hilarious to leave her there. Louis’ already got her revenge up her sleeve. And _okay,_ Louis doesn’t _actually_ line up behind Zayn by pure chance, she pushes some Year 7 out of her way but nobody’s there to stop her so.

“Hey,” Louis says brightly, knocking her elbow against Zayn’s.

“Hi,” she says, narrowing her eyes at her slightly.

“Did you realise your eyelashes are almost touching your eyebrows – that’s ridiculous, that’s like my aunt’s mole hair long,” Louis says, reaching out with a hand before she can stop herself.

Zayn gives her A Look and grabs her wrist before she can make contact.

“Um, thanks,” Zayn says, an eyebrow shifting up a little.

“So how do you know our Liam?” Louis says as if that didn’t happen.

“Um,” Zayn says and this time she drags it out, eyes flicking over to where Liam’s sitting by herself, her nose in a book. “We lived next doors to each other when we were younger,” Zayn says and continues to look weirdly defensive.

Louis decides she’s not going to address that and continues on, “Oh, right, ‘cause I was wondering how that worked out,”

“How what worked out?” Zayn says, properly raising an eyebrow now.

“You’ve kind of got a rep and Liam’s not, y’know,” Louis says easily.

“Oh yeah? Like what?” Zayn asks, crossing her arms, tilting her head to the side to glare at Louis. There is definite tension in the way she’s holding herself now, defensive but tired and wary all at the same time. If there’s one thing Louis’ great, it’s ignoring the atmosphere.

“Getting on your knees for your grades and shit,” Louis says, shrugging like it’s no big deal. “But let’s be real: Ms Boyle? I’d go there,” Louis says and holds her plate out for chips. She violently gestures for more at the food lady for more because Harry would have finished by now and want to steal hers.

When she turns back around, Zayn’s smiling again, still guarded around the eyes but the tension’s melting from her shoulders. “Those rumours aren’t true, by the way,” Zayn says, holding her plate out as well.

“It better not be or I’d have to kill you,” Louis says, “Ms Boyle and her gams is the property of Louis Tomlinson, ask anyone.”

Louis turns back to the food lady and with a sigh reaches out with a hand, “Here, I’ll do it,” and grabs a burning handful of chips that she dumps on her plate. Ignoring the food lady’s appalled face, Louis skips the salad and waves goodbye to Zayn, already halfway across the cafeteria. She smashes her elbow into some kid’s chest in the process and kisses him on his zitsy forhead in apology.

Zayn shakes her head at her retreating figure.

~

“Your friend’s fucking weird,” Zayn says, sitting next to Liam.

Liam jerks her head out of The Great Gatsby to stare at Zayn. The fact that Zayn chooses to sit with her when she could basically be friends with anyone in this school still astounds Liam. Zayn asking her about a _friend_ is even weirder. She’s just not used to it, constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“What friend?” Liam says and immediately wishes she could take it back.

“Tomlinson,” Zayn says, biting into a muffin.

“Oh,” Liam says and blinks. She doesn’t speak for a moment, eyes wide and uncomprehending before Zayn knocks her shoulder against her, a puzzled expression on her face.

“Snap out of it, princess,” Zayn says.

“What did she do?” Liam asks, still not connecting the words _friend_ with _Louis_.

“Don’t know, came up to me and started talking about mole hair and banging teachers,” Zayn says with a knowing nod.

Liam kind of wants to grab Zayn by the shoulders and shake her. She hasn’t known Liam since they were five years old, she shouldn’t know how to read Liam like a goddamn book. There’s a reason Liam keeps to herself because _this_ is kind of terrifying.

“She does that a lot,” Liam says instead and shrugs like it’s nothing.

~

“Hey, Liam, Liam, LIAM, HEEEEEEEEEEEY!” Liam turns around, pulling her earphones out, her heart racing already. She doesn’t get a lot of people shouting out her name in the hallway and that can’t ever actually be a good thing.

“Oh, hey,” Liam says, noticing Louis. “What’s wrong?” she asks, frowning instantly. She can’t figure out any other reason Louis would be here.

“What? Nothing,” Louis says frowning back at her. It disappears in an instant though and Louis throws her arm around Liam’s shoulder, bending her arm at the elbows to rest her hand on the back of her head. “What do you have now?”

“French,” Liam says, trying not to elbow Louis in the side and drop her textbooks at the same time.

Louis says in an atrocious French accent, “Bonjour mon amour! Mon petit chou.”

Liam tries to smother her laughter because she’s not entirely sure if it’s appropriate or not – she doesn’t know what Louis expects of her and she doesn’t want to make a mistake – and ends up fumbling with her textbooks.

“Ma cherie,” Louis says tutting, “Here, let me.” Louis grabs the biggest textbook that refused to fit into Liam’s bag and tucks it under her other arm. “How’s it hanging, babe-you-bangin’?” she asks.

“Um, fine, I guess, I mean, I,” Liam closes her mouth and wishes Louis would go away because she’s uncomfortable and her heart’s racing and she won’t _stop touching her_.

“What are you listening to?” Louis asks, skipping over her stuttering to reach over and pluck an earphone from Liam’s hand.

Louis pushes the earphone into her ear and after a while starts to nod along, a small smile starting to spread on her face. Liam’s just glad she hadn’t been listening to Britney Spears or something – well, Louis might have liked that more, actually.

“This is some really angsty shit,” Louis says gesturing to her ear but she’s still smiling, matching her strides to Liam’s. “You listen to weird music, like the shit Haz listens to,” Louis says and Liam just nods and tries not to look too much into it. Why should she care if Louis Tomlinson doesn’t like her music taste, right?

“It’s a lot more sufferable with you, though,” Louis says, pulling the earphone out and detaching herself from Liam. She gives a tiny crook of a smile, private and intimate, and hands her textbooks back.

“What do you have now?” Liam says in an attempt at a conversation even if they’re standing outside her French classroom. If things go south now, she could just escape into the classroom and try to suffocate herself into the desk without much ado.

“My noble art and calling: drama,” Louis says with a little curtsey.

“That’s in Building C,” Liam points out, “All the way across the school.”

“I know,” Louis says and turns around, walking off down the hallway to her class. She spins around halfway down the corridor and Liam realises she probably should go inside if she doesn’t want to be late but Louis waves at her and Liam takes the time to wave back.

~

"Why don't you have any friends?" Zayn asks, taking a long drag of her cigarette and peering at Liam from under her eye lashes

They’re walking home together, shoulders and elbows knocking against each other. Liam doesn’t know how to respond to that so she doesn’t, biting the insides of her cheeks and trying not to curl up into herself.

"You used to have heaps," Zayn says quietly, linking her arm through Liam's. Zayn’s known Liam for only about three weeks now and realised long ago Liam needs to know Zayn actually likes her every now and again. She isn’t going to run off and pretend befriending Liam was some kind of sick joke.

"That’s because we were five," Liam says with a huff of a laugh, relaxing against Zayn.

"Yeah, I know, you were the mother duck, making sure no-one choked on the sand and everybody 'respected' each other," Zayn says with a matching laugh.

Liam smiles fondly into the sky, doesn't make eye-contact as it fades. "I don't know," Liam says and shrugs like she hasn't lain in her bed and thought the same thing for days and weeks, soaking her pillow through and balling her fists in her sheets. It’s not that bad anymore, she mostly keeps to herself and nobody bothers her. She can deal with it.

"Do you miss your friends?" Liam asks, deflecting any further questions by bumping her hip against Zayn's.

She doesn't understand why Zayn chose her out of everyone to be friends with. Sure, they knew each other when they had been five with skinned knees and knotted, sandy hair but Liam can't fathom why she's with her now. Zayn's ridiculously pretty, Liam can see the looks she gets from boys and girls and strangers alike. Liam’s just _Liam_. Plain, boring, sensible, straight-A’s Liam with the cardigans and Biology homework.

"Nah, didn't really have any," Zayn says easily, flicking ash off we cigarette with practiced ease.

Liam doesn't say anything, just walks down the street arm in arm with Zayn because she's heard the vicious rumours in the bathrooms too, how Zayn had fucked her English teacher and left her old school. Liam doesn't care if they're true or not.

"Would you consider Louis to be your friend?" Zayn asks.

Liam pauses for a moment, pretends she hasn't thought what it would be like to have Louis pay attention to her. To have the most liked girl in the school give her a tiny morsel of attention. Pretends she hasn't thought of kissing her against the nearest wall when she was fourteen and so fucking confused and terrified.

"I don't know, I've only started talking to her because of the assignment," Liam says, looking down at her red flats, trying to portray a certain sense of disinterest in the conversation.

Zayn doesn't say anything but slings her arm around her shoulder and in her spontaneous bursts of affection, lands a smacking kiss on her cheek as if she's reassuring her for words unsaid. Liam laughs and wipes at her cheek, her hand coming away with sticky lip gloss.

"Want to watch toy story on the old VHS in the garage like we used to?" Liam says and gets ready for a ‘no’.

"Only if you're providing the cookie dough and nobody cries," Zayn says and remembers the way to Liam's house.

~

Louis’ waits outside the school gates for Liam on Tuesday, sitting cross-legged on the pavement because she can’t be arsed to stay standing. She’s rarely alone for once, Harry practising for track and Niall watching over her to make sure nobody harassed her because Harry in those red running shorts _was_ kind of distracting. It was kind of cute; Niall was like Harry’s own personal extremely tiny and blonde security guard.

Louis waves goodbye to the torrent of people who spot her sitting down on the way out and will them to part so she can see if Liam’s coming or not. When she finally does spot Liam, she’s walking with Zayn attached to her hip.

“OI!” Louis shouts out, waving her arms from her spot on the ground.

Liam and Zayn both turn at the sound and change their direction, walking over to where Louis is sitting. Louis stays stubbornly seated until they’re both in front of her and gestures impatiently for Liam’s hand. When Liam, bewildered and confused as always, lets her have her hand, Louis easily grabs it and pulls herself up. Liam lurches forward for a second before she gets it and pulls Louis up.

“Greetings my children,” Louis says magnanimously, swinging her bag over her shoulder with her left hand and not letting Liam’s hand go.

“Hey,” Zayn says nodding at her.

“Do you mind if we go to your house today? One of my sister’s came home with chicken pox or measles or the black plague or whatever and I don’t think we should risk it,” Louis says, bumping her hip against Zayn’s in greeting.

“Uhh,” Liam pauses for a second, her eyes flicking upwards and Louis can practically feel her brainwaves calculating if her room is fit for company or not. Louis shakes their linked hands to get her attention, “Yeah, sure, I’m sure it’ll be no problem.

“Schweeeet,” Louis says, making her voice low and ridiculous to see Zayn’s eyebrows twitch.

“I’ll see you guys later, actually, I’ve got people to do, things to see,” Zayn says, saluting them with two fingers, already walking away.

“That’s not the way the saying goes,” Liam shouts out after her feebly.

Zayn turns around and flashes them a smile, all teeth and pretty, and disappears down the street.

“I like her,” Louis says simply, walking towards where she’s estimating Liam’s house to be.

Liam pulls her by the hand down a different road and says, “Yeah, I do too.”

After a moment of not comfortable but not nearly as balls awkward as it could be silence, Liam clears her throat and wriggles her fingers.

“Why are we holding hands?” Liam asks. “S’just, my hand’s getting sweaty.”

Louis tightens her grip on Liam’s hand and swings it back and forth enthusiastically, “Because we’re friends and this is what friends do.”

Liam doesn’t answer for a little while and when Louis glances at her side-ways; her heart fills up with relief at the small smile that’s lingering on the corners of her mouth before she tucks it out of sight. Louis squeezes her hand again and starts singing ‘Call Me Maybe’ at the top of her lungs until Liam begs her to stop because people are _staring_.

~

Unfortunately, Liam’s mum’s home from work as usual, sitting at the kitchen table going through her paper work and Liam has no time to usher Louis up the stairs and into her room before they get spotted. Liam can tell by the look on her mum’s face she’s thinking ‘two friends in two days?’ and wants to drop dead on the spot. She would bet a hundred bucks that the next moment of her life was going to be agonisingly embarrassing.

“Alright my darlings?” she asks, taking her glasses off. “And who might this be?” she asks, raising her eyebrows at Liam with a happy little grin on her face.

Trust Liam’s mum to be happier about the fact she’d actually made some friends than Liam.

“I’m Louis,” Louis says, letting go of Liam’s hand to shake her mum’s. “And is this the bangin’ sister Liam never told me about? Shame on you, Payne,” Louis continues to Liam’s absolute horror.

The situation does _not_ improve when her mum actually _giggles_ and says, “Oh, no, I’m her mother,” like everyone in that room doesn’t already know that.

“Well I can certainly see where she gets her good looks from,” Louis says, corny as fuck but still managing to charm the pants off Liam’s mum.

“Hey, so, we should really get started on our homework if we want to finish it today,” Liam says, standing awkwardly in the doorway of her own fucking home, finally cutting in when they start talking about buying matching onesies. Liam doesn’t really know, she forced herself to block everything out with Louis asked where Liam’s mum got her _bikini wax done_.

“Of course of course,” her mum says, holding her hands up when Liam gives her The Look. “Have some Yorkshire tea before you go up,” she says, preparing the cups.

“Oh my god, marry me,” Louis says and drops down on one knee, a hand resting on her heart.

Liam is _not_ jealous of Louis serenading her mum – she really isn’t. They just really need to get started on finishing their assignment if they’re going to do a good job of it and anything but an A+ is clearly unacceptable. Liam’s going to be a doctor and she can’t bloody well be one if Louis is proposing to her mum in her kitchen.

Liam doesn’t really know how to do words though so she turns around and climbs up the stairs, settling her bag on the back of her chair like she always does. She looks around the room with her bottom lip between her teeth, making sure there’s nothing embarrassing poking out. Her framed Batman poster is hanging over her desk but there’s nothing she can do about that right now.

It takes another five minutes for Louis to finally get to her room, holding two cups of tea and an awed expression on her face.

“You’re mum is amazing,” Louis says, putting the cups down on her desk.

“I know,” Liam says a little more curtly than she intends too.

But her mum _is_ amazing and ever since her dad walked out on them, it’s just been Liam and her mum. They share everything with each other and Liam always goes with her when she wants to try something new like Zumba ( _never again_ ) or a liquid diet cleanse. Suddenly sharing Liam’s best friend (Liam’s never going to think the fact her mum is her best friend is something to be ashamed of) with her new _friend_ is just odd is all.

Louis dumps her bag, held together by safety pins and buttons from school musicals, in the middle of the room and collapses on Liam’s bed. She smushes her face against Liam’s pillow, limbs splayed out against her purple duvet.

“Smells nice,” Louis says, muffled.

She sits up, sitting back against Liam’s pillow as if she was completely at home and says, “Your room is very _very_ clean. I can see the floor and everything, how on earth do you play the floor is lava?”

“I don’t?” Liam says, shrugging.

“We should play!” Louis says eagerly but Liam’s distracted from replying because Louis’ got her hands behind her back and under her shirt. Before Liam realises what’s happening, she’s flinging her bra at Liam’s head, having expertly shrugged it off under her t-shirt.

“Wh-what are you doing?” Liam asks, trying not to panic at this turn of events.

“Just getting comfortable,” Louis says like this is normal people behaviour.

Liam grabs Louis’ bra off her head, fumbling with it and trying not to notice how it’s still warm and bright orange. She sets it down carefully on her desk and refuses to look at it.

“You know the rules, right?” Louis says, standing on her bed with her legs bent, ready to spring.

“I was once a human child so yes,” Liam says, giving in because it’s easier than trying to compartmentalize and rationalize everything that’s happening. Liam gets up on the chair and says, “The floor is lava!”

~

They end up tangled in Liam’s bed, both breathless from laughter and bruised in weird places. Louis didn’t know a game of the floor is lava could get so intense. She’s aware that at one point Liam had done Tobias’ whole audition for the fire! (sale). Liam acted out a scene from Arrested Development – even sang Amazing Grace and everything.

Louis glances at Liam still laughing on the bed, eyes squeezed shut and she’s never wanted to kiss someone so badly in her life.

It’s weird, Louis doesn’t think she’s ever _liked_ someone before and not just wanted to bone their brains out. She’s never actively tried to _woo_ someone. She has a feeling it shouldn’t be this hard. Or maybe she’s on the right track if she can barely stand to watch Liam laughing without getting her hands on her.

Louis doesn’t though, she doesn’t kiss her, and it physically pains her to keep her hands to herself and just huff a laugh against Liam’s bare shoulder in a perfectly friend-like way. She’s going to woo the fuck out of Liam and she doesn’t want to mess this up before it’s time. It’s pretty much the hardest thing she’s ever had to do, not giving in to her impulse and pressing her lips against Liam’s. Louis doesn’t usually _think_ before she acts – she’s fast coming to the realisation it’s because it’s nowhere near as fun or satisfying. _Safe_ but agonising.

“We should get started on Bio,” Louis says cheerfully, pulling away from Liam with difficulty.

The last thing she wants to do now is fail Biology, she’s only spent this whole time trying to prove that she wasn’t actually dumb as fuck.

~

They finally hand in their assignment on Friday and Louis has to admit she hasn’t tried this hard in school since kinder garden. Liam looks relatively pleased with their work though and it leaves a warm feeling in Louis’ stomach. So much she plasters herself all over Liam’s side throughout the whole period, snuffling into the side of her neck to make her drop her pen and squirm.

“You are such a dolt,” Liam says when the bell rings, packing up her stuff as Louis waits, having already packed her bag five minutes before the bell went.

“ _Dolt_?” Louis says with a snort, “Oh, my dear Liam.” Louis shakes her head sadly because Liam is truly a lost cause and Louis is so _fucked_.

“Shut up,” Liam mumbles but she’s smiling and there’s no real bite to her tone.

They walk out of the classroom into the crowded hallway, Louis’ arm slung around her, her chin tucked against her shoulder.

Liam actually _blushes_ when Louis continues to stare at her profile. She makes an attempt to ignore Louis’ face _this_ close to her own and so Louis tries harder, makes kissy faces and tries to get Liam to turn her head.

In the end, Louis doesn’t mean to do it. She’s been so _good_ so far, kept her hands and mouth to herself because she wasn’t going to screw up the one thing in her life that mattered right now.

But Liam turns her head just a little and her eyes are laughing, crinkled in the corners and all Louis can see is _Liam Liam Liam_. She doesn’t mean to push Liam up against the corridor wall and slip her hands under her cardigan and around her waist. She doesn’t mean to but she does and she presses a kiss to the corner of Liam’s mouth. Louis does it again to the other side and another one slightly off-centre.

Louis smoothes her hand over Liam’s back in a reassuring sweep of warmth and fits her palm against the curve of Liam’s jaw. Liam shudders against Louis, responding to her touch by kissing her back, fitting their mouths together properly and letting her mouth slide open when Louis licks at the seam, flicks her tongue against her bottom lip.

Louis forgets they’re in a crowded hallway in the middle of a school day because Liam’s cold finger tips are skating at her hip bones and her train of thought fizzles out pathetically.

Until Liam jolts against her and pulls back, pushing at Louis’ shoulders. Louis steps back immediately and watches with a sickening drop of her stomach at Liam’s transformation. She looks fucking terrified, eyes blown wide, her mouth still parted and soundless.

“Liam, don’t freak out – Liam,” Louis says, tugging at her wrist to get her attention. Louis doesn’t know what the fuck she’s saying, she just knows she has to get it out quickly if she doesn’t want Liam to run away. It’s a knee-jerk reaction, to apologise, to say anything to get that horrible expression off her face. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to –.”

“W-what are you doing?” Liam asks and she pries Louis’ hand off her wrist.

“Oh god, this wasn’t supposed to happen,” Louis says helplessly. “Ha, we can just forget about it!” Louis says, her voice tilting into the hysterical territory. Louis throws her hands up like someone’s drawn a gun on her and takes another step away from Liam.

Liam pauses for a moment, her eyes downcast and Louis can tell her brain’s working overtime. She just doesn’t know what conclusion she’s going to come to.

“Did you think it would be _funny_?” Liam finally says in a harsh whisper. When her brown eyes flick up again, they’re wet and red and it feels like Louis’ has been sucker punched in the stomach. Liam looks around, her eyes going huge as they dart around at the people who’ve stopped to stare at them. She looks like a deer in headlights except it shouldn’t be so fucking heart-breaking.

“What, no, I’m sorry,” Louis says hurriedly because maybe if she says it enough Liam will stop looking at her like that. Louis turns around to follow Liam’s gaze, finally aware of the fact that they aren’t alone. Louis, naturally, doesn’t give a shit but she knows Liam does.

“Liam!” Louis says because she thinks she can salvage this or at least make some sense of it. But Liam’s slipping through her fingers and nothing she can say or do is going to make Liam stop shaking her head at Louis and disappear into the crowd.

“Nice one!” someone says from the crowd with a laugh. Someone else joins in and another person comes forward to pat Louis on the back and to give her a thumb up.

“What the fuck?” Louis barely has time to say to no-one in particular when Niall shows up, pushing her way through the crowd to grab Louis’ hand.

“Come on,” Niall says and pulls her down the corridor, lost in the sea of students.

“What the fuck just _happened_?” Louis asks, grabbing Niall by the shoulders.

“Louis Tomlinson, you are a lot of things but I know you are not a fucking cruel, bullying cunt,” Niall says and Louis steps back as if she’s been slapped. “What are you playing at?” Niall continues, squeezing her hand tightly, blue eyes flashing dangerously.

“I didn’t mean to kiss her! Hey – she kissed me back,” Louis says defensively, recoiling from Niall. She takes a gulping breath and blurts out, “Fucking _fuck_ , this wasn’t supposed to happen. It’s just, I think – I think I’m a little bit in love with her and she makes me want to do stupid things like spend hours wiki-ing Batman so I can talk to her about it because she gets ridiculously excited and her cheeks go up and _up_ and actually do my schoolwork and I want to kiss her _all the time_ and _-_.”

“Oh my god,” Niall says and pulls her into a hug, keeping Louis’ face pressed against the side of her neck and smoothing her hair down. “Oh, fuck,” she says.

“I don’t get it,” Louis says.

“Everyone thinks you’re playing a joke on her,” Niall says quietly and adds, “and so does Liam.”

~

After an urgent sleepover at Harry’s house, Louis comes to the conclusion that she _shouldn’t_ scale the side of Liam’s house and enter her bedroom a la Edward. Louis falls asleep with her face on Niall’s belly, Harry’s hand knotted in her hair. When she wakes up it’s because Niall’s stomach sounds like an ogre is trying to escape out of it.

“Your body is like a bloody alarm clock,” Louis says, her voice muffled in Niall’s freckled belly, skin soft from sleep. She sticks her tongue in her belly button just because she can and almost gets kneed in the face for her troubles.

Stretching out her limbs, Louis clambers out of the bed the three of them all share on a regular basis and jogs out of the room before Harry can wake up and use all the hot water. When Harry’s brother whistles at her bare legs as she brushes past, Louis barely opens her left eye to flip him off before she’s in the shower.

Louis strips quickly, throwing her clothes on the floor and climbing into the shower, hissing when the still-cold water hits her skin. Scrubbing at her face viciously, Louis tries to sketch out some sort of plan. They’d tried last night but Louis, as much as she hates to admit it, was pretty upset and sulking because the universe hated her and wanted to make her life miserable.

She didn’t know what to do. Obviously, talking to Liam was pretty high on that list but since Liam had been pretty fucking upset when they’d last talked, she figured she should at least give her the weekend to resent Louis’ guts. Talking to Liam came first because Louis couldn’t quite wrap her head around how Liam would think she was playing a _prank_ on her. Louis liked to think she knew Liam a bit better by now but she didn’t know how Liam would think she’d be so fucking cruel.

So.

Regroup. Talk to Liam. Sort this fucking shit out.

Pretty simple list, Louis had a feeling in her stomach it wasn’t going to be that easy.

~

“Why would she think I was playing a prank on her?” Louis asks, head hanging upside down from the edge of the sofa in Harry’s living room.

Harry groans because she can be a good best friend, she can console and dish out advice to Louis but Louis’ been here for two whole fucking days and has not shut up about the _same_ thing the whole time. Harry flops onto a cushion and tries to suffocate. Louis pokes her with a toe impatiently.

“Geez, I don’t know, maybe going over this for the millionth time will help,” Harry says, grabbing her toe and trying to bite it.

Louis wriggles free before she can get a good grip and swings around to face her, a dimple appearing between her eyebrows, the beginnings of a frown and a full-blown sulk.

Harry sighs and tugs at a strand of Louis’ hair. “Because it’s _Liam_. She thinks all different in her head, draws different conclusions to you and I, y’know,” Harry says, waving her hands around vaguely.

“But we spent almost every day together,” Louis says, “I was woo-ing her!”

“I know, sweetcheeks, I know,” Harry says soothingly. “You guys will figure it out on Monday, okay? Now go phone your mum if you’re going to be staying the night.”

“Yes _mum,_ ” Louis says, struggling off the sofa. Harry lands a smack right on her arse as she walks past for that and turns up the volume for Adventure Time.

~

Except Liam doesn’t show up to school on Monday, or Tuesday or Wednesday nor does she answer her phone. Louis knows this because she’s pretty much memorised Liam’s timetable by now (she wasn’t walking her to class for shit’s and giggles). By Wednesday, Louis’ going stir-crazy and leaves school during lunch to go back to her Plan A and scale Liam’s house.

She runs to Liam’s house, out of breath and in pain by the time she gets there. Clutching her sides, Louis looks up at the side of the house where Liam’s room is and exhales harshly. She really didn’t think this through.

Still, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Louis shifts the bins so they’re up against the house and starts to clamber on, scratching her bare legs against the brick wall. She’s barely got a foot onto the downstairs toilet window ledge when she feels a shocking burst of water against the side of her face and she goes cart wheeling off the bins.

“What the fuck,” Louis splutters, pawing at her face. She rubs at her eyes until she can see Louis’ mum standing over her, a hose in her hand. “What are you doing?” Louis asks, trying to get up, eyeing the hose warily.

“I think you should leave,” she says and waves the hose in a vaguely threatening manner.

“I just need five minutes to talk to her,” Louis says desperately, wringing her hair out.

“Do you have any idea what -.” Liam’s mum starts to say but at that moment, Liam’s window slides open and she cuts her off with a, “It’s okay mum, let her up.”

Liam’s mum narrows her eyes at Louis and Louis doesn’t even have time to redeem herself in front of Liam’s mum, she’s already bounding up the stairs to Liam’s room. She bursts into the room, sopping wet and scratched to shit. The pain and the uncomfortable wetness clinging to her skin fades away when she sees Liam sitting at her desk, her eyes cool and polite, like they’ve never met before.

“Hey,” Louis breathes out, her voice so much quieter contrasting the heavy thuds her boots had made on the way up the stairs. Or maybe that’s just her pulse.

“Hey,” Liam says back at her.

“We really need to talk,” Louis says and takes a step forward. Something flashes in Liam’s eyes for half a second, so fast Louis barely catches it before she takes on her coolly disinterested persona again, all false bravado and straightened spines.

“Okay, let’s talk,” Liam says calmly, spreading her hands against thighs.

“It wasn’t a prank. It was – I wanted to kiss you and so I _did_ but it wasn’t a prank,” Louis says.

Liam smiles at her and its worse than if she’d had started shouting at her. The smile is careful and constructed to look reassuring. Louis tries not to choke.

“Louis, it’s okay, I know you were just screwing around,” Liam says, that horrible smile still on her face. It looks like it’s the only thing keeping Liam going at the moment. “Like you said, you do things without meaning to.”

“What? No, you’re taking it out of context,” Louis says and she doesn’t know where to even start, doesn’t know what part of Liam’s words she should address first.

“But listen,” Liam says and her voice is still controlled, her spine ram-rod straight. “I’m not going to play along for the laugh, it’s not worth it.”

“I never asked you to,” Louis says, balling her hands into fists now, clawing at the inside of her palms. She falls quiet and loses her train of thought because all she hears is _you’re not worth it you’re not worth it you’re not worth it._

“I’m not stupid, just because everyone knows I like girls -,” Liam finally snaps. She regains her composure and says, “Just because you don’t notice anyone unless they’ve proven themselves to your ridiculous standards-.”

“Who asked you to prove anything – what are you getting at? Liam -.”

“I get it now, you can stop pretending and go back to all your friends and tell them you fooled me into thinking – just, I get it, you can stop now,” Liam says and she’s not smiling anymore, she’s shrinking into herself.

Louis tries to relax her hands but she’s shaking and if she uncoils her fist, she’s going to unravel. She doesn’t know if she wants to hit or kiss Liam because she is such an _idiot_ and the fact she can think Louis would be so fucking horrible leaves her gasping for breath.

“You know it wasn’t that,” Louis says and her voice’s dropped to almost a whisper. “You _know_ but you’re to fucking scared to do anything about it because you don’t _want_ to trust me. You know what? _Fuck you_ ,” Louis says because it’s true, she can be a cruel bitch when she wants to be.

She turns around and storms out, barely conscious of where her legs are taking her in her haste to get out of the house before she can start crying like a fucking idiot. Louis realises she’s turned the corner already when she almost trips on the curb. She sits down heavily and pushes her face in the crook of her elbow and bites and bites her lip and tells herself she’s not going to cry.

~

Louis doesn’t feign sickness or avoid school, she doesn’t work like that. She doesn’t want to be left alone with her thoughts, repeating the same scene over and over again until she has to grit her teeth and stop her shoulders from shaking. So she goes to school, she slings her arms around her best friends and smiles for them, all pointy teeth and laughter, and tries to forget that Liam still hasn’t come to school yet.

She goes to watch Harry beat everyone else on the field, green eyes shining so bright and tries not to wonder if it would have been easier if she’d fallen in love with Harry instead. Louis throws herself into drama, auditions for the latest school play about some moral message that she doesn’t really care about, and does her homework once in a while.

After a week of keeping herself _busy busy busy_ , Louis finally splits at the seams and grabs Zayn’s arm in the hallway.

Zayn’s head whips around, her eyebrow raised and she looks like she’s about to hit someone. Zayn relaxes when she realises its Louis and not some uncultured brute going for a grope. She maintains her glare though, cold and impersonal.

Something in Louis’ expression must have been miserable enough because Zayn lets herself be hoisted down the hallway and into the girls’ toilets. The bell rings and second period starts but they both ignore it, silence stretching with the echo of the bell still echoing in their ears.

“What do you want?” Zayn finally asks, sighing.

Louis pauses. She doesn’t actually know why she’s dragged Zayn into the toilets. Louis finally looks up from the letters scrawled against the wall and crosses her arms.

“Liam hasn’t been to school for like two weeks now,” Louis says and attempts a shrug. “I don’t want her to flunk out because of me or whatever,” Louis pauses again, uncharacteristically still and says, “Can’t you just tell her I’ll keep out of her way?”

Zayn doesn’t say anything, just stares at Louis like she’s trying to figure her out.

“It _wasn’t_ a joke?” Zayn demands, grabbing hold of Louis’ wrist and tightening her hold.

“It doesn’t fucking matter anymore does it because she obviously doesn’t believe me,” Louis says and watches as Zayn’s eyes get wider and wider before she squeezes them shut with a small “Oh shit.”

“What?” Louis asks, she can sense something bad is going to happen and it’s all she can do to keep the panic from welling up in her stomach.

“She’s gone,” Zayn says simply.

For a while Louis stills completely, her blue eyes uncomprehending and all she can think of is how Liam’s palm fits against hers.

“What do you mean she’s _gone_?” Louis demands after a while, her brain catching up with her finally. She tries to remain calm, tries not to get her hands on Zayn and shake her.

“She’s in France. For the semester, she applied for an exchange programme thing ages ago and she only decided to go,” Zayn says and she’s definitely looking at Louis differently now, her eyes filled with something like pity.

~

“What the fucking fuck did she go all the way to _France_ for?” Louis asks.

Niall glances at where Louis’ lying underneath the bleachers before her eyes focus on Harry again, stretching on the field. She nudges Louis with her foot in what she hopes is a comforting manner.

“It’s fucking _France_ , why would anyone go to _France_?” Louis demands, grabbing Niall’s ankle in her kung fu death grip and refusing to let go.

“To get away from you?” Niall attempts at a joke, wincing as her grip refuses to loosen. “Too soon?”

“No shit fuckwad,” Louis grumbles from underneath the bleachers but she lets go of Niall’s ankle with an apologetic stroke of her thumb.

Niall snorts and says, “I don’t know, it’s romantic and shit or something. The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre – Culture. Art. _Bread_.”

“Am I _that_ horrible that someone moved countries to avoid me?” Louis asks, her voice muffled and sad.

Niall sighs and wishes her friends could sort their shit out instead of being over dramatic and hiding underneath dirty bleachers and flying out of the country left right and centre. Niall wishes for a lot of things in life, to get those boys to stop staring at Harry like she’s a piece of meat, to have some of that long French bread right now and for everyone to be happy but she knows she’s not going to get any of these any time soon. So she settles for the only thing she can do in this situation and crawls underneath the seats and lies down next to Louis.

They lie with their side pressed together, staring up at the dirty, gum-infested underside of the seats, hair gluing to the sticky floor. Niall doesn’t say anything because she _doesn’t_ know what to say. That’s enough for Louis.

Until Niall gets kicked in the side and she curses, scrambling out from underneath the bleachers to pop whoever it was in the face. After hitting the side of her head against the seats at least three times, Niall struggles up to see Zayn standing there, her arms crossed.

“Ouch,” Niall says and jabs Zayn in the stomach with a finger.

“Is Louis down there?” Zayn asks, ignoring Niall. “Tomlinson!” she says loudly, banging on the seat with her palm.

Louis crawls out after a moment, cobwebs stuck in her hair, her left cheek smudged with dirt.

“Why were you guys under the bleachers?” Zayn asks then raises her hand, “Never mind. You,” Zayn points at Louis with a snap of her fingers, “you need to sit the fuck down.”

“Did you come to shout at me because I made your best friend move to that shitdamn country because if you are, I’m just going to throw myself over the fence,” Louis says, sitting down with a sigh.

“Both of you are the stupidest twats I have ever had the pleasure of knowing,” Zayn says, standing in front of Louis with her hands on her waist.

“Oi,” Louis says, pulling a face, “Okay, me – yes – but Liam’s not stupid.”

“Oh my god,” Zayn says and actually covers her face with her hands.

“You’ve only been here five seconds, I’ve been dealing this for weeks now,” Niall whispers furiously in Zayn’s ear.

“I’m going to help you because Liam keeps sending me these sad little texts and she should be geeking out all over whatever the fuck is in France, okay?” Zayn says, sitting down next to Louis. She pulls out a fancy wet napkin thingy mabob Louis has a vague recollection of seeing in the make-up aisle and starts wiping at Louis’ face.

“What?” Louis says stupidly, watching Zayn’s disgusted face as she pulls the cobwebs out of her hair. Zayn yelps and draws her hands back when she feels a weirdly sticky patch in her hair.

“I’m going to help you unfuck this grade A bullshit, Tomlinson, keep up,” Zayn says, wiping her hands on Louis’ sweater.

“I don’t think you can,” Louis says but Niall shushes her.

“Let’s hear your plan of action then,” Niall says, clapping her hands together, feeling a whole lot better now that they’ve got something to do other than mope.

“This isn’t some indie flick where love transcends all boundaries and the end credits roll to some song created in an underground meth lab while we frolic in the meadows!” Louis says, pushing her hair out of her eyes.

“Liam told me what happened, well, more or less,” Zayn says shrugging before Louis cuts her off.

“I think she made it pretty clear she didn’t want anything to do with me.”

“Does it hurt? Being that stupid?” Zayn asks through gritted teeth. Louis grabs her hand and bites her thumb.

“NIALL!” Zayn explodes, glaring at Louis and cradling her hand to her chest.

“What am I supposed to do about her?” Niall asks helplessly, keeping her hands to herself because Louis has sharp teeth.

“She likes you, she likes you so fucking much she can’t actually believe _you’d_ like her,” Zayn says, closing her eyes and attempting to be patient.

“That’s coconuts,” Louis says, disbelief written all over her face.

“To the point she’d constructed this whole conspiracy theory, which hey – it didn’t seem so far-fetched at the time, half the school believed it too – and you _know_ how it gets inside her head, now she’s off in France being miserable and not even enjoying herself at museums. _Museums_ , Louis, _museums.”_ Zayn drives the point home by widening her eyes at Louis.

“Now you know. Don’t make me regret this, Tommo,” Zayn says, gathering up her bag. She nudges Louis’ ankle with her shoes and gives her a meaningful look. “Sort this shit out. Make it right.”

Niall gets up as well, mirroring Zayn’s look. She links her arms with Zayn’s and Louis watches both of them walk away, her heart beating awfully fast for someone who hadn’t moved in quite a while.

“They haven’t even fucked? Are you fucking _kidding_ me?” Zayn shouts at Niall. Niall rushes her down the stairs, turning back to give Louis an apologetic glance.

Louis takes a deep shuddering breath and feels the constricting pressure on her ribs ease a little bit. She can do this, she’s _going_ to do this. Louis doesn’t even notice time passing, the sun starting to set, the field starting to clear until Harry’s jogging up towards her, sweeping her curls into a messy bun.

“You okay, Lou?” Harry asks, leaning over to stare at her face.

“Yeah, I think so,” Louis says. She doesn’t try to smile but Harry knows her well enough to believe her.

~

Louis stares at her phone for at least an hour before she types out _i miss u._ She hits the send button with, her thumb beating out her pulse against her phone. Louis falls asleep with a vice-like grip on her phone anyway.

~

Two days later, Louis gets a reply during Biology where she’s falling asleep, drooling slightly on her textbook.

She almost drops her phone in her haste to get it open, almost cutting the pad of her thumb on the crack splitting her screen in two.

_you too_

Is all she’s written but Louis heart feels like its expanding way too fast and she can’t feel her arms so she puts her head down on her textbook and tries not to shout the words threatening to spill out of her at every moment.

~

Louis mails Liam a French book she remembers seeing in her room, only because it was completely battered to shit and almost unreadable with the scribbles and dog-ears, it’s first-edition and it costs her a small fortune but she sends it with a Polaroid picture.

It’s a picture of Louis talking to Liam outside her French class, head’s tilted towards each other, small smiles tugging at their lips. Harry had taken it, mostly because she got tired of taking pictures of her tits and because she actually had to finish her Art project before they took the camera away from her.

She scribbles underneath it _bcos this is totally a b/w indie film w/subtitles (don’t deny u love ur pretentious films)._

~

Three days later Louis’ phone buzzes and she has to cover her mouth during whatever the fuck class she’s actually in because it’s a dick scratched onto the Eiffel Tower and _Liam sent her a picture of a dick scratched onto the Eiffel Tower_.

~

Louis misses Liam so much she randomly needs to put her chin down to her chest and take deep breathes. Harry pets her hair whenever she does that and even Zayn’s started to keep around them, shaking her head at Louis but thankfully refraining from commenting.

To ease the hollowness in her chest, Louis sends Liam stupid love songs that remind her of Liam’s smile and ragged finger nails and adds her favourite parts in bold like ‘ _you always make me smile_ ’ and ‘ _I'm down with your love - come on, hold out your hand’_. Niall sees her tapping out the lyrics to Sunday Morning and Louis has to physically push Niall’s face out of the way so she won’t see her blushing.

Liam sends her back twelve seconds of an acapella song:

_I am a honey bee_

_Shunned off from the colony_

_And they won’t let me in_

_So I left the hive_

_They took away all my stripes_

_And broke off both my wings_

And it takes Louis five times before she realises its _Liam_ singing and it’s impossible to get a coherent word out of her for the rest of the day.

“When is she coming back,” Louis wails into Zayn’s shoulder, squeezing her hand. “It’s been six fucking weeks.”

“Do you not know how long a semester is?” Zayn snarks at her and so Louis licks the side of her face for not taking her pain seriously.

Louis splutters because foundation never tastes nice and Zayn laughs at her, openly mocking.

She listens to Liam’s voice until she falls asleep.

~

The rain is anything but romantic, not like anything in Liam’s French films. It’s harsh and stings where it lands on her cheeks and she falls over twice, sliding against the mud and scraping her knees against the dirty concrete. Every breath is shooting sharp pains down her side and Liam’s shivering, wrapping her arms around herself to try and get herself warm again.

She finally reaches Louis’ house and she rushes to the door step, wiping the rain off her face. She takes a deep breath and chokes on the cold air. Liam shuts her eyes and tries to push it all back, how this is going to be a bad idea and leave her scrubbed raw and so much more tired than before. How she doesn’t need this, she doesn’t deserve this –

Liam rings the doorbell and the few seconds it takes for the footsteps thudding down the stairs and onto the landing seems like forever and Liam can’t stop fucking _shivering_.

The door swings open and warmth rushes out and heats her cold bones until she needs to take a step back. Liam has a feeling it doesn’t have anything to do with the heating but Louis standing in front of her in the flesh, her mouth slack and open, blue eyes blown wide open.

“Hey,” Liam says quietly into the space between them, clutching at her elbows through her soaked shirt.

“Liam,” Louis says as if she can’t quite process it, dumbfounded, her hand falling limp from the door handle. She blinks and makes a sound in the back of her throat before she’s saying, “Holy fuck, _Liam.”_

It’s like something finally clicks into place for her because she rushes forward, hands coming up to cup her wet cheeks and she’s kissing her. She pours all she has into it, pressing her body up against Liam’s, her thumbs brushing the drops of water on her cheekbones. Liam makes a broken sound, almost sobs in relief and her body relaxes, falling against Louis’. She wraps her arms around Louis’ waist, getting her clothes wet. Louis’ skin burns through her clothes and Liam’s not ready to let go when Louis pulls back.

“Shit, Lou, I’m sorry, I was -.” Liam starts to say frantically, doesn’t know how to get her to understand because Liam doesn’t understand herself.

Louis thankfully cuts her off with another kiss, sweet and terrifyingly intimate against the corner of her mouth. She kisses her again and Liam closes her eyes, stills as Louis kisses her nose and cheek, trailing down her jaw and ending one with a firm press of her warm lips against her ear. She wraps her arms around Liam and it’s still fucking freezing and the rain’s falling in stinging droplets against their skin but Liam can feel the heat of her and it doesn’t seem to matter.

Louis just holds her close, standing on her tippy toes and says so softly, “Does this mean you’re going to let me love you?”

Liam tightens her arms around Louis and hides her face in the junction where her shoulder meets her neck and nods frantically. Her fingers are held tight and numb around the fabric of Louis’ shirt and Liam breathes against her skin.

~

They stay like that for a while until Louis’ dad comes to the door and tells them to get the shit in before they die of pneumonia. Louis pulls her into the house, threading Liam’s freezing fingers with her own.

Maybe Louis sees Liam needs some time to get her shit together because she demands she have a shower first, handing her a huge t-shirt, pyjama and a fluffy towel. Louis pulls the towel over Liam’s head and pulls her forward and kisses her again, hidden in the upstairs corridor. When they separate, Louis smiles at Liam and it’s not the bright, blinding smile she shares with everyone else and something under Liam’s breastbone flutters because it’s fucking _Louis_.

She makes sure the water is as hot as it can get without actually scalding her skin off and stands there, fingers digging into her arms. Liam scrubs the mud off until her skin turns pink and her fingers are starting to prune.

When Liam walks into Louis’ room, she’s already changed and dried off, resting under the covers. She lifts the corner of the cover with a crooked smile and Liam can’t help the answering smile that spreads on her face, barely aware of her feet leading her to the bed. She slips under the covers, smoothes her hand down the soft material of the worn t-shirt to steady herself and turns to Louis.

Louis pushes her nose against Liam’s playfully, her hand trailing slowly down her arm to rest her thumb against the bone of her wrist. She’s still got that smile on her face that’s making it difficult for Liam to breathe so Liam grabs her hand, fits their palms together.

“Tu me manques,” Louis says in an atrocious accent that Liam can barely understand.

Liam doesn’t say how that should be in the past tense because she’s here _now_ and she’s not going anywhere any time soon. She just squeezes Louis’ hand and noses along her collarbone, all warm soft skin and hard lines.

“I wanted to kiss you too,” Liam says like it’s a confession, mouthing against her skin so Louis can barely hear her.

Louis wraps herself around Liam, slots their legs together and warms her up with the heat of her body. She strokes her still damp hair, fingers tangling in her curls and Liam falls asleep to the sound of Louis murmuring into her ear, her hand under her shirt, blazing against the skin of her stomach.

~

Liam likes that her body does that weird thing where she wakes up at 6am every morning without an alarm clock. She usually goes for a run before starting the day but when the grogginess starts to ebb away, Liam’s left more confused than ever. Then it all comes flooding back to her, she’s not in France, she won’t have to drink hot chocolate any time soon and she’s in Louis’ _bed_.

“Um,” Liam says to herself, blinking slowly because she’s so incredibly warm underneath the covers, Louis plastered onto her like a particularly loveable octopus. It should be uncomfortable and all sharp elbows and hipbones but Liam doesn’t find that she minds.

Then she catches the sight of the clock on the bedside table and realises with dismay it’s 5am because of course, it had taken her body a little while to get used to waking up an hour earlier in France and now that she was back –

Louis snorts in her sleep and snuffles her cold nose into the collarbone and it makes Liam all shivery before she knows what’s happening.

“Oh fuck,” Liam says because of course this is going to happen right now.

She’s hyper-aware of her body right now, the way Louis’ got her bare legs tangled with Liam’s pyjama-clad ones, rubbing the soft cotton against her skin. Louis’ got one arm thrown around her stomach, fingers curled in a closed fist against her hip bone and she’s just so _warm_.

Liam just has to get out of bed and dressed and wait for Louis to wake up, preferably away from the amount of skin Louis is showing, skin all soft from sleep. Of course Louis sleeps in her underwear, _of fucking course_.

She never said it had been an easy six weeks.

Maybe she should go for a run, which might get rid of the jittery nerves and the heat under her skin. Congratulating herself on her fantastic skills under pressure, Liam tries to untangle herself from Louis’ grip without waking her up, holding her breath and ignoring the large part of her brain that’s saying _abort abort this is not a drill ABORT MISSION._

Liam manages to move a little bit, shifting her legs so she can swing them over the side of the bed but Louis, of course, wakes up and announces this revelation by blowing a raspberry on to the side of her neck.

“Liam Payne, are you running away from me?” Louis asks sleepily, barely able to crack one eye open. “Because it’s barely 5:10 and that’s offensive on so many levels,” Louis continues, rubbing at her eyes, her hair a right mess.

“I was going to go for a run,” Liam says, her limbs still tense because who knew Louis would be so attractive all sleepy-eyed and messy-haired.

“You’re such a dick,” Louis says but she’s smiling, not moving from her position, draped half-on top of her.

“I was going to come back,” Liam says and can’t resist brushing her lips against her cheekbone because she’s _right there_ and it’d be a pity not to.

“Hmph,” Louis says although she looks mollified. She moves to cuddle Liam more thoroughly, or maybe to make sure she’s not going to go for a run. She fits her leg between Liam’s, shoving cold finger tips into her shirt and mumbles a soft ‘sorry’ when Liam gasps.

Liam hopes her she’s not blushing because it feels like her whole face is going to burst into flames. Somehow Louis’ sleep-addled brain still hasn’t seemed to figure out why this is and so Liam tries again.

“I need to go to the toilet,” Liam says and clenches her eyes shut when Louis presses a kiss against her neck before pulling away to stare at her face.

“Are you oka-.” Louis starts before she takes in Liam’s flushed cheeks and the way she’s trying really hard not to move against Louis’ leg and says, “ _Oh_.”

Liam keeps her eyes scrunched close and resist the urge to say _don’t make fun_ because she’s still Liam Payne, a few texts and a declaration of love isn’t going to fix her constant self-doubt and general anxiety. She finally opens her eyes when Louis lands a kiss to her crinkled nose and _shifts_ her leg.

“ _You’re_ the dolt,” Louis says, grinning madly, all pleased and smug. “I’m going to kiss you now,” she says and Liam relaxes against the pillow, wrapping her arms around her waist to keep her in place.

Louis stops smiling soon enough, sucking on her bottom lip and pressing down just _right_ with her leg, making Liam arch into her touch. Liam smooths her hand down the length of Louis’ spine and gets her hands underneath the ragged t-shirt to skate her finger-tips against her ribs to feel the shivers run through her body. Liam feels like she could do this _forever_ until Louis smooths her palm over her t-shirt slowly, dragging heat down the swell of her breast and digging her thumb into her ribs to anchor her and her mouth goes open and slack. It isn’t that hard to flip them over, pressing Louis down into the mattress, slotting their legs together again.

Louis laughs, bright and lovely in the cold morning air and Liam leans down again to kiss her again. While Liam’s pressing a biting kiss against the line of her collarbone, Louis’ hand trails down slowly over her abdomen, her fingertips resting against the waistband of her pyjamas pants. Liam nods against Louis’ skin, pressing kisses up the side of her neck and jaw.

“Oh shit,” Louis says and Liam breathes out a laugh against the wet skin and says, “You didn’t give me any underwear yesterday.”

Who wants to running in the freezing cold when you can do this, right?

~

They’re walking down the corridor and Liam’s holding her hand, thumb brushing over her knuckles absentmindedly and Louis’ trying to tell her about the time Niall beat up a boy who was making fun of Harry’s curls and it’s _distracting_.

“What was I say – right, so she’s got him in this headlock, right, and she’s tiny _now_ but back then she was like this teeny garden gnome,” Louis tries again and glances at Liam who’s smiling at her indulgently, textbook crammed under her other arm.

“You do realise the bell already went,” Liam says.

Louis hadn’t noticed but now that she’s looking around there’s less people in the hallway, more than a few still loitering around. She shrugs and to her surprise finds she’s in front of her Sociology class.

“You walked me to class even though you’re going to be late?” Louis says grinning, “Awww, _lee_ -yum!”

Liam laughs, dropping her textbook so she wouldn’t have to let go of her hand to push at the kissy faces Louis’ making at her. Louis presses a kiss against the palm of Liam’s hand in farewell and turns around to go to class because she knows Liam’s secretly freaking out inside her head with every passing minute she’s late to class.

She gets pulled back when Liam yanks on their joined hands. Louis spins around and squeaks in surprise when Liam kisses her, their hands sandwiched in between them.

“I love you,” she says against her lips and releases her hand.

Louis’ still dazed when Liam presses another quick kiss to her cheek and bends over to pick up her textbook. Liam turns around swiftly and starts walking down the corridor, turning around to wave at her with that shy smile.

Louis waves back, grinning so hard she wonders if she could sprain _all_ the muscles of her face.


End file.
